Mice with cold weather

[swimmer]

We have never had a mouse problem. Once the snow and cold hit, so did the mice. Noticed a small hole next to outdoor run. Set up some traps over night and caught a couple. Going to rig up a bucket trap tomorrow and see what kind of luck we have over the weekend. Went out to close up coop earlier and saw a few mice running around. Should I put the food away at night? I don't notice a bunch of food being eaten, but then again I just noticed the mice a few days ago.

 

[Casey3043]

I finally bought a metal garbage can to keep out in the run to put the feeder in at night. I was losing a tremendous amount of feed to mice. Once I started putting the feed up at night, I noticed that I didn't have to go to the feed store nearly as often. I was buying over 100 lbs of layer feed a month for 30 chickens, plus 50 lbs of scratch which they get as a treat in the late afternoon. I trapped a bunch of mice in the garage and workshop, and am still catching them. I am really careful now about spilling feed, and keeping the feed in mouse proof containers.

"A population will increase to the limit of its food supply". That goes for mice, people, rabbits, whatever. Feeding them just makes the problem worse.

Good luck with getting rid of them.

 

[Mountain Man Jim]

We use steel garbage cans here too. We use the typical feeder but, to contain the mess, we place that inside a black rubber, 6 in. high, round, tub. This way the feed doesn’t get all over, we are more effective (us less) with the feed and minimize the attraction for mice.

Jim

 

[woodmort]

Oh yeah, as soon as the weather gets cold they come inside the coop and house--we get cute little deer mice besides the field mice and voles. Cats are really busy catching them. Make sure the bottoms of any galvanized water heaters are covered or they will nest there. Also all feed should be in heavy, plastic "barrels"--I like the Rubber Maid ones. They can chew through these but not very fast and if they're where you see them every day probably won't bother. BTW, if the chickens catch the mice, they'll be eaten.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Fox, coyotes, hawks and owls help control them here but I still have a good supply of mice. I only feed scratch in the morning so none is left at night. Any outdoor feeder pellets not cleaned up by late afternoon goes into a pan mixed with warm water. The hens clean it up completely and they go to bed with full bellies and well hydrated.
Cleanliness is next to mouselessness.

 

[swimmer]

Thank you. Some great ideas. I store my feed in 5 gallon buckets with the lids. So no problem in the storage area. I'll bring the feed in at night and store in big lidded can. I don't seem to notice(yet) the food going down very fast in the feeders. I didn't think they could jump up that high to get into the feeders, but I think mice are more capable than I'm aware of. I've got my bucket trap up and I'm waging war on the mice.

 

[swimmer]

As I was setting up my bucket trap, my white rock helped me out by catching one of her own.